Life in Ancient India as Depicted in Jain Canons

SR No.: 011077
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jagdishchandra Jain
Publisher: New Book Company
Publication Year: 1947
Total Pages: 429
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 16 MB

Page 149

THE FAMILY
147
filled with tears and in most pathetic words she persuaded her son not to give up the wordly pleasures.? Mothers were highly esteemed We hear of king Pūsanandi who had a great devotion towards his mother and used to bathe and eat after she finished her bath and meals
RELATIONS AND FRIENDS
Various relations and friends are mentioned There were friends (mitta), kinsmen (näi), members of one's own family (niyaga), one's blood relations (sayana), connected by marriage (sambandhi) and one's dependents (parijana).
As the father grew older, the care of the household fell on the shoulders of the eldest son We hear of people retiring from the world after giving the household management to their sons
The relatives and friends etc. were invited at various occasions such as birth, marriage, death and various festivals We are told that when Mahāvira was born, his parents invited their fiiends, relations, kinsmen and followers and enjoyed a grand feast in their company 10
Then we are told of thc Brahmana brothers of Campā who lived with their wives They decided to have their meals together in one another's house by turn, 11
II
CHILDREN The children were happy adjuncts of the liousehold. The mothers who gave birth to children, fondled and dardled them on the knee, were considered happy The childless mothers (nindu) were taken as unlucky, so they yearned for children and propitiated various deities to obtain them We hear of Devai, the wife of Vasudeva, who considered heisclf unhappy and unrighteous because she could not have a child for a long time. Bhadda was another woman who prayed to deities, worshipped them and promised to offer wealth to repair their old shrines provided a son or a daughter was born to her, 13 Mention is made of another woman, Sıribhaddā, who used to give birth to still-born children She was told by an astrologer to cook rice-pudding (pāyasa) with the blood of a stillborn child and to offer it to a right type of monk (sutavassi) so that her children might survive.14
7 Nāyā 1, p 23f, Uttarā Sū, 19 8 Vilā 9, 34 f
Nāyā II, p 51 10 Kalpa Sū 3.104 11 Nayā 16, p 162. 12 Anta 3, p. 13
Nāyā 2, p 49, cf. Acadāna Sataka I, 3, p. 14. Ava, cū p. 288.